The emblematic structure ofPericles

Abstract

Abstract Pericles is an odd play, and the corrupt state of the text may be partly to blame. But the textual ‘badness’ of Pericles has infected critical judgements, so that the theories of its misfortunes at the hands of collaborators, pirates, plagiarists, and memorial maulers are often used simply to confirm its apparently poor literary quality. That it was excluded from the First Folio may only acknowledge its doubtful textual condition; yet this earliest editorial judgement does not, any more than the assessments of modern critics, contradict the fact of its great success on stage during Shakespeare's lifetime.1 The disparity between audiences and editors is an index of the fundamental debate which vexes all discussions of the play: Is Pericles authentically Shakespearian, and must it be certified as such before critical studies of it are warranted? It has, unfortunately, been all too easy to be distracted by its questionable status and so neglect its literary merits.